Milwaukee’s voucher program prompted sustainable achievement gains for the city’s public elementary schools, according to a new study by a Harvard economist.
Researcher Caroline Hoxby followed up on a study of three years ago, in which she concluded that the private school choice program pushed the public schools to improve.
In the new study, she adds test score data from two additional years – the 2000-’01 and 2001-’02 school years – and finds that the gains were sustained, although they did not accelerate. The study was published in the Swedish Economic Policy Review.
Daily Archives: April 12, 2004
Saving money on your phone bill: VOIP
David Pogue reviews the latest VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services, which allow you to call anywhere in the United States for as little as $20.55/month (plus your broadband internet connection):.
This development is annoyingly called voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP, which means “calls that use the Internet’s wiring instead of the phone company’s.” When you sign up, you get a little box that goes between your existing telephone and your broadband modem (that is, your cable modem or D.S.L. box, a requirement for most of these services).
At that point you can make unlimited local, regional and long-distance calls anywhere in the United States for a fixed fee of $20 to $40 a month (plus the cost of your broadband Internet service, of course). Overseas calls cost about 3 cents a minute. These figures aren’t subject to inflation by a motley assortment of tacked-on fees, either; voice-over-Internet service is exempt from F.C.C. line charges, state 911 surcharges, number-portability service charges and so on.
Save money, switch! I’ve been using www.packet8.net for some time.
Two alternatives beyond the phone interface: ichat | skype
New proposal would eliminate ?Education? from school district budget
Bizzaro Wisco Column – [Humor]
Filberto Epstein
March 30, 2004
A document released today by the Madison Metropolitan School District
outlines the administration?s proposal to close the district?s $10 million
budget shortfall by eliminating all ?education? activities and focusing on
the district?s core ?child storage? functions. According to Superintendent
Art Rainwater, the increasing cost of ?education? has impaired the
district?s ability to balance its books.
Thanks to Lucy Mathiak for pointing me to this article.
Who Owns What?
Columbia Journalism Review has a very useful tool: Who Owns What? Locally, Wisconsin State Journal owner, Lee Enterprises, owns a myriad of small regional publications, including 50% of Capital Newspapers, an entity shielded from monopoly concerns by the no longer necessary Newspaper Preservation act of 1970.
Post & Publish
Nahal Toosi writes a very thin article about blogging, including campus initiatives.
Last week, Tim Kelley asked me to visit with his UW journalism class and discuss my perspective on blogging. [608K PDF]